Bonum Certa Men Certa

Don't Play Politics and Diplomacy with Microsoft

“Did you know that there are more than 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for just 435 representatives and 100 senators? That's 64 lobbyists for each congressperson.”

--CIO.com



Microsoft's lobbying activities were summarised back in May. Here is a short new article that that speaks about Microsoft, among other companies and their lobbying muscle. It ends with:

Last year a total of $2.82 billion was spent lobbying Congress, according to OpenSecrets.org, and 2008 is well on its way to surpassing the $3 billion mark.


Some people fail to understand the scale of such corruption. It motivated Larry Lessig to abandon his work and start the "Change Congress" campaign. Software patents, for example, are part of the problem.

“The worst one can do is try to beat Microsoft at its own game using the same tricks or blind cooperation”To tackle this issue, it probably needs to be targeted at its root. The worst one can do is try to beat Microsoft at its own game using the same tricks or blind cooperation. The Linux Foundation, which tried to fight fire with fire when it hired Al Gillen for propaganda, got it all wrong.

Likewise, one must not try to just accumulate as many supportive politicians as possible to defend Free software. They work based on money, so it would never work out. It's like trying to kill software patents one by one rather than eradicate them as a whole. The system which permits this is probably the biggest culprit.

Dana Blankenhorn isn't just a writer focusing on open source software and health care; he's also somewhat of a politics buff, so he frequently weaves politics in with technology, just like Microsoft does. He compares the games Microsoft plays with Free software to the games which the Administration plays with the public.

Every few years Microsoft gets a new “good cop” regarding open source.

He makes great pronouncements, donates some old code, maybe tosses a few bucks the way of open source.

Then Steve Ballmer opens his yap and we’re back to square one.


This is not entirely true. The likes of Ramji are part of this, not just Microsoft's CEO. Watch what Bill Hilf, Ramji's predecessor, said after the Novell deal:

"We would like to strike similar patent deals with all the Linux vendors, but we had to start somewhere," said Bill Hilf.


Don't let the likes of Ramji and Ballmer/Ozzie play "good cop, bad cop". It used to be Bill & Steve playing that game. As Novell's Ray Noorda described this pair: "Pearly Gates and Em-Ballmer: One promises you heaven and the other prepares you for the grave." It's the same with Ramji, who promises FOSS developers a heaven (peaceful coexistence in harmony), trying to lull the 'community' to sleep. As Pamela Jones put it recently, they are "taking notes". FOSS developers at OSCON should treat Microsoft as though it's already suing because she believes they will (Novell too is a problem).

Only a couple of days ago we saw Microsoft using its patents offensively. Pamela Jones has just written: "Another [way to look at it] is that this could be the new business model. Anyway, we know now that they didn't file all those patents just for defensive purposes."

Microsoft knows what it's doing and it's worried about the growth of GNU/Linux. To use the infamous "war on terrorism" meme, remember articles like "Sun exec accuses Microsoft of 'patent terrorism'" and ""Convicted Monopolist Terrorizes Software Industry." Who would befriend such a beast?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
 
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead